Pork meatballs in roasted vegetable sauce

Italy is famous for meatballs and this easy recipe pairs pleasing nuggets of pork with a tempting roasted vegetable sauce. They're Free and very filling!

ingredients

500g lean pork mince (5% fat or less)

2 tsp dried thyme

Small handful of roughly chopped fresh parsley, to garnish

-for the vegetable sauce

2 courgettes, cut into chunks

2 red peppers, halved, deseeded and cut into chunks

2 red onions, cut into wedges

2 garlic cloves, halved

Low calorie cooking spray

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

400g can chopped tomatoes

4 tbsp tomato purée

1 tsp sweetener

method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6.

First roast the vegetables to make the sauce. Put the courgettes, peppers, onions and garlic into a roasting tin and spray with low calorie cooking spray. Season to taste and roast for 30 minutes, turning occasionally.

Meanwhile, put the pork in a bowl with the dried thyme. Season well and, using your hands, shape the mixture into 24 meatballs. Chill them while the vegetables roast.

Put the roasted vegetables in a food processor with the chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, sweetener and 150ml of water. Blitz until smooth and check the seasoning.

Pour the sauce into the same roasting tin you used for the vegetables and drop in the meatballs (without stirring them in yet). Roast for 20 minutes then stir the meatballs into the sauce.

Garnish the meatballs with parsley and serve them with hot pasta or rice.